Why it works: Potato and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,023 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓
Potato Pie
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Layer the sliced potatoes in a pie dish, adding chopped onion, pepper, and salt between each layer.
Pour in a little water and place small pieces of butter on top.
Bake and serve
Cover the dish with puff pastry and seal it well.
Bake for about 1.5 hours.
If desired, add the yolks of hard-boiled eggs before serving and pour in mushroom ketchup through a funnel.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.
Explore the science
The flavor team
The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.
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Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together9,023 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together12,525 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).
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Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,305 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Potato + mushroomtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together968 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
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Onion + mushroomtop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together10,626 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Potatoes
- Form the bulk of the pie, becoming tender and soft as they bake.
- Butter
- Adds richness and moisture as it melts over the potatoes.
- Puff pastry
- Seals the dish and bakes into a crisp, flaky top layer.
- Onion
- Adds savory flavor that mellows and sweetens during baking.
The step that matters
Sealing the puff pastry. A tight seal keeps steam and juices inside the dish, so the potatoes cook through and become tender instead of drying out. A loose seal lets moisture escape and can leave the filling underdone.
Swap the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (potato, pepper, butter, egg, mushroom, ketchup):
- Capsicumfits better
- Chivefits better
- Asparagusfits about as well
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against potato, pepper, butter, egg, mushroom, ketchup. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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